Record high equity trades on Irish Stock Exchange

The strong demand for Irish shares witnessed last year continued into the first quarter of 2015 with record equity trades reported, according to new figures published by the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) on Wednesday.

Over 1.4m equity trades took place during the first three months of the year, an increase of 28. 3 per cent on the preceding quarter and the highest ever recorded in a single quarter in the exchange’s history.

Turnover in equity shares and the ISEQ20 ETF totalled €23.9 billion, up almost 70 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2014 and 34 per cent higher than the same three-month period last year.

The average daily turnover for equities stood at €380m per day in the first quarter, up 72.7 per cent versus the prior quarter.

Six companies on the ISE's equity markets raised a total of €2.2billion in the quarter. The Irish-based life sciences company Malin, which is headed by a number of former Elan executives, secured €330million from international investors last month. Its decision to list on the Enterprise Securities Market (ESM) brings the number of companies quoted on the market to 27.

Five other companies had placings during the quarter under review, with CRH raising €1.6 billion, Irish Residential Properties Reit securing €215million, Dalata getting €50 million and Providence Resources and First Derivatives obtaining €26 million and €21 million respectively.

The ISE saw an increase in almost 400 securities listed over the course of the first quarter and it said it counts more than 32,800 securities from over 4,000 issuers from 80 countries around the world. Among the new bonds listed were an €850 million bond from Ryanair to finance its aircraft and a €500 million debt issuance by the Spanish retailer Hipercor.

The figures show the total number of funds listed on the ISE fell from 676 to 648 in the first three months of 2015, while the number of subfunds decreased from 1,509 to 1,498.

The Iseq Overall Index continued its strong performance and reached 6,019 at the end of March, as against 5,225 in the preceding quarter). The ISEQ20 index, which is used as a basis to track the ISEQ20 exchange traded fund (ETF), had a slightly bigger increase of 15.6 per cent.